Red headed devils rock this blog

I was obviously a late-bloomer when I finally discovered craft blogs, because by the time I stumbled upon Nikki at Tales of the Red Headed Devil Child, she had already been ruling the web for years. I fell in love with Nikki and and her little devilish darling Hannah, and felt so inspired that I started my own blog. Nikki's knits under her label devilishred, are available at Juniper in Wellington - go get yourself some of that action! (Nikki knitted the most gorgeous pair of baby pants for Remy's friend Clara. I gasped when I unpacked them, they were just sooooooooo cool). Today I've taken total advantage of Nikki's wonderful nature by asking her to write a guest post. Without further ado, here she is!

Where it all began...

So, craft is now cool. Officially. Sunday Star Times magazine says so in an article featured on Sunday titled “Craft Attack”. They also ask the (assumedly rhetorical) question “one wonders if the phenomenon is rolling out New Zealand-wide, or whether it is a peculiarly inner-city Aucklo-Centric endeavour.”

SueTyler fought back with the details of the non-Auck-centric NZ craft scene... being that she was actually there I’m gonna go with her story over the Auckland-ass-kissing journalist who wrote the Sunday magazine piece. There’s now also a facebook group entitled ‘Craft exists beyond the Bombay hills.’ Take that Sunday Star Times – we have a Facebook Group.

I will end my bitching there and instead focus on the positives, highlight some uber-cool-very-much-not-Auckland crafty types. Types who have been there for many a year, and are doing quite well for themselves despite *gasp* *shock* *horror* not living in Auckland. In fact, these crafty types are often living in rural settings... working from the comforts of their homes... selling stuff online and in local markets. It’s ideal really.

First up we have the gorgeous Agnes Coy. Alison has been working from her home studio in the Wairarapa (a map is linked for Aucklanders... very much South of the Bombays) and selling at the various markets that run in local towns around the place. Alison makes a whole bunch of things to wear and carry as well as stuff for around your home. I am particularly enamoured with her hand embroidered bird pillows.

Next up is our very own Megan Rose with her beautiful couture-for-kids. She’s now stocked in quite a few ‘baby boutiques’ and is someone who is doing well by valuing her creations – something very rare in the NZ craft scene. She’s working from the middle of nowhere in the South Island. Oamaru, I believe the locals call it. I’m pretty damn proud of her for doing so well with her beautifully made little people fashion and can definitely see fancy schmancy types falling all over themselves to get hold of a Van Rose piece.

Another Wairarapa girl, Janelle is making her mark by funking up abandoned knits under the label HeartFelt. She scours second hand shops and is sent things from far and wide to upcycle: dyeing pure wool items and embellishing with felt and perfectly made stitches. Her designs are largely NZ-inspired and she escapes the tackiness that is often present with Kiwiana type products. I love love love the kowhai that graces some of the knitted garments and I am so glad that where she can, Janelle dyes them such gorgeous bright colours.

I can safely say that Rhiannon of Toast clothing is a leader in the NZ craft scene as she’s been doing her thang for quite a while now in various New Zealand towns, none of which is Auckland ;) If I have done my stalking correctly, she began Toast clothing in the markets in and around Nelson a few years ago. Since then she’s moved to Whakatane and has continued selling, mostly online. Her appliqué patches are absolutely intricate and her fashion design pretty damn cool. I’ve not been able to resist clicking the ‘purchase’ button many a time when visiting her shop... so beware.

All these crafters give priority to the environment; each recycling materials in some way, working with vintage and second hand fabrics and items. They are all really supportive of fellow crafters and are absolutely gorgeous people as well. These women were involved in the crafty scene long before it was the focus of Sunday Magazine and I imagine will still be long after the ‘cool kids’ have moved on to the next best thing, or perhaps they’ll pre-empt it.

Give me hedges, lots of hedges, and the starry sky above

Between the ages of 12 and 17 I was locked away in an all-girls Anglican boarding school. There were almost 200 girls in the hostel and, though it might be hard to believe, not all of them were that much fun to be around. All that changed when Katy arrived in the 6th form and made me be her friend. That might seem an odd thing to say, but she really did force me into it, and I bet she'd say the same thing. Anyway, now I can't imagine my life without her.

Katy has many advantages as a friend but two in particular meant we were destined to be BFF: she was brand new so the matrons didn't know her as well as they knew me; and she has an innocent, darling little face.

All of my very favourite memories of school involve Katy. Mostly they involve Katy and me trying to break out of the hostel (see the two points above). One day I'll share some of those stories with you, but right now Katy is going to share a story of her own.

A couple of weeks ago I started cutting our enormously overgrown front hedge. Said hedge borders our little front yard on three sides.

The first day I spent quite a long time hacking the front and the side that borders our path to the back of the house. After fours hours I got it down to a decent size but it looked completely bald at the end of it. I was a bit worried that I'd killed it.

But after a couple of weeks it started to grow back in much more of a hedge shape.

Having discovered that I probably wasn't going to kill it, I started on the side that borders with the neighbours.

Initially I just trimmed along it. But the top had given up on being hedge and started being trees. It looked kind of ridiculous. So I got a chair and started cutting a couple of feet off the top. I figured I wasn't encroaching too much on the neighbours if I only cut to the middle of the hedge. Which of course looked even more ridiculous. Our half being nice and neat and two foot shorter. Too make it more irritating the top section was long supple branches. So as soon as I cut my side the branches on the neighbours' side started drooping back to my side. I decided that that was sufficient justification to half climb into the hedge and cut the top section of the neighbours' side. All the time I was delicately pulling the cut branches back onto my side (in the vague hope that they might not notice). Then there were some sneaky branches that were growing up the neighbours side of the hedge that sprung up higher than the top. So then I was almost inside the hedge, cutting the offending branches... and feeling terribly naughty. But I still couldn't get it looking respectable.

Finally one of the neighbours came home. The house is divided into four flats. The person who came home lives on the first floor nowhere near the hedge... and is Thai and doesn't speak a lot of English. Which was perfect. I said 'can I just pop over to your side and neaten up the top of the hedge?', indicating with my hands. She said 'yes', and scuttled inside.

That was enough for me. I picked up my chair and took it into the neighbours' yard and started trimming the top. I went over to the other side of the road to have a look, but from there all that was obvious was the enormous unchecked branches growing into their yard, making our nice neat side look bald.

I thought 'I'm sure they won't notice if I just neaten it up a little'. I started cutting back their side a little... and a little more... and a little more. I couldn't stop. I felt so naughty. But it felt fabulous. Eventually I was standing there knee-deep in hedge cuttings. I furtively put them in a tarp and dragged them back to my yard to hide the evidence in the vain hope that they wouldn't notice that half their hedge had disappeared.

And now I'm wondering if I have a bit of a hedge problem. I've started eyeing up other peoples hedges. Imagining what I could do to them. Do you think there's a ten step group? Obsessive hedge cutters anonymous?